


The Dread Lady

by CommonEvilMastermind



Series: Ellara Lavellan Collection [3]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Feels, Kidfic, ellara adopts all the orphans of Thedas, play with feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 09:07:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7885072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CommonEvilMastermind/pseuds/CommonEvilMastermind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Solas finds his Inquisitor with an unlikely group of friends. Cue feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dread Lady

"Your pardon, Solas, but have you seen the Inquisitor?"

"I have not," he replied, glancing up from his notes. "And yet you are the third person to ask me in the past hour."

Josephine scowled. "I have been looking for her - I wanted to get these treaties out by the afternoon courier." She tapped the tip of her quill wearily against her writing board. "I supposse tomorrow will do just as well. But if you do see the Inquisitor - "

"I will inform her that you are in search of her," he promised.

"My thanks." The Antivian swept out of the rotunda, mind already on the next task.

Solas returned to his studies - categorizing the changes that had occured in the Veil in his absence - but curiosity rolled through his head like a stray marble. Where then could the Inquisitor be, that she so deftly avoided the attempts of any who searched for her? He put the thought in the corner of his mind. Yet the third or fourth time it rolled into his consciousness, he sighed and put down his quill.

Perhaps he would join in the Herald-hunt after all.

He had a resource that Josephine lacked. With a sliver of his magic tucked into the crease of her palm, the Inquisitor shone like a beacon in his senses. Even from afar, he could hear the almost-melody of her brushing against his skin.

He followed it, sternly telling himself it was only for the purpose of making sure she had not fallen to harm. Not because he in any way missed her company. Not because he was oddly content in her presence. Only to check on her. For Josephine.

Some cynical part of his mind was snorting in amusement. He ignored it and turned his attention to the lilting song of her that wove through the stones of Skyhold.

It led him to a small, rarely-used door in the bowels of the fortress. He frowned at it - if memory served correctly, it led to a small strip of green whose only purpose was to buffer the fortress from the edge of the mountain. What would she -

Someone screamed.

He threw the door open, pulling lightning from the air to sizzle in his hand. The Inquisitor was sprinting down the length of the grass, being chased by a pack of...

of _children._

Ellara leapt atop a pile of abandoned masonry. "Ah ha! You'll never catch me! I'm the Queen of- oof!"

A small figure with wild black hair had thrown itself at her midriff, toppling her off the stones. The rest of the pack surrounded her, laughing and crowing in satisfaction.

"Curses! You caught me!"

"Yeah," a sandy-haired boy said, satisfied. "And now you're going to prison!"

"What! No! Not fair! Unhand me!" She mock-struggled as little hands grabbed fistfulls of her tunic, tugged at her fingers, pushed her from behind. "I am the Inquisitor - you can't just -! Where is jail, anyways?"

"In the leafs!" a cheerful elven girl contributed.

"Yeah! The leaf pile!"

"Not the leaf pile! No! You'll never-" they pushed her unceremoniously into a pile of dead leaves left from Skyhold's beautification. She surfaced, sputtering. "Drat."

"We gots you!"

"Yeeaaaaah. Now you gotta stay in jail." This was the sandy-haired boy again, hands on his hips.

"I am the Dread Lady!" Ellara declared, tossing her hair. "No jail can contain me! RAAAH!" She growled and lunged free of her leafy prison, the pack of children scattering gleefully before her. "I'm going to get you - Mae, are you okay?"

The tiny elven girl nodded her head, though her eyes were huge.

The Dread Lady knelt down in front of her. "Am I a little scary when I roar?"

Again, a tiny nod.

"Do you want to be the Dread Lady with me?"

The girl offered her little hand, which the Inquisitor took gently in her own. "Okay, but you gotta help me roar. Ready?" The two Dread Ladies roared together and took off (at a slightly slower pace due to short legs) after the main pack. Children were chased, caught, and thrown unceremoniously into the leaf pile.

Solas leaned against Skyhold's stone and did not even bother to hide his smile. He noted a few interesting details - the oak tree to the corner of the clearing with the tiny ramshackle treehouse in it, the newly-repaired wall that prevented anyone from accidentally tumbling over the mountain side. But mostly he took in her unfettered smile, the leaves in her hair, the way the children screamed with glee. The pleased blush that rode high on her cheeks when she spotted him standing by the door.

The game continued for quite some time. She would throw children into the leaf pile until they rallied - usually under the sandy-haired boy or a fierce looking girl with wild black hair - and joined forces to capture her and send her to jail. Solas walked along the wall to sit under the oak tree, in no hurry to quit the chaotic scene. He had had little experience with children as a whole, but could certainly see the charm in their unshadowed joy, their wild, gleeful cries.

It was enough, for a moment. To sit in the shade and watch. To take a breath. To simply be.

Eventually the Inquisitor toppled to the ground, chest heaving.

"Yoo-hoo," a boy in a patchy shirt waved. "Come an get me!"

"Nope." She threw an arm across her face. "You got me."

The small elf girl darted forward and touched her, then scampered away giggling. She waved a hand at her attacker wearily.

The sandy-haired boy looked at the Inquisitor, frowning. Then he charged forward, landing on her stomach with a crow of victory.

"Oof!" she wheezed. "Should have seen that coming, I should have seen that coming. Mikel, get off."

"No!" he bounced on her gut for added emphasis. She twisted, flipping him off into the grass, muttering darkly. He sprang to his feet, undeterred. "Are you dead?"

"Ow," she complained.

Then the girl with wild black hair was there, fists flailing. "Don't you hurt her!" the girl screamed. "Don't you dare hurt her! I'll kill you!" She struck Mikel again and again as the little boy started wailing. "I'll kill you! I'll kill-"

Then the Inquisitor caught her small sharp fists in callused hands. "Hey, Illi. Hey now, it's okay. I'm okay. See?"

"He hurt you!" Illi screamed. "I'll kill him!"

"No, he didn't hurt me, we were just playing." She held tightly as the child flailed wildly in her grip. "I'm okay. Take a breath."

"But you were hurt-" Illi protested. "Mikel - "

"I know, it looked like he was hurting me." She kept her voice low and gentle, the words barely reaching Solas' attentive ears. "That must have been scary."

"I was protecting you," the girl spat.

"I know," she nodded gravely. "But I'm okay. Thank you for protecting me, but that isn't your job right now. I can protect myself. Your job is to be little, and help protect the rest of the little ones."

"But what if you were dead?!" Illi yelled, yanking her hands away. Mikel started crying again. "I have to protect you so you don't die like -"

"Illi," she said, voice dropping softly like a pebble. "It's okay." She reached an arm out to Mikel without breaking eye contact with the girl. He buried his face in her side. "It's okay," she told him, told her, told them all. "It's okay. You're safe. You're in Skyhold now."

"You said that about Haven." Illi crossed her arms, glaring from under her wild tangle of hair.

"And you all made it out safely, didn't you?" She pressed a kiss to Mikel's sandy hair. "You are all mine now. You belong to Skyhold and to me. I will always protect you."

They gathered around her, drinking in her words like battered soldiers to dawn's first light. They seemed skittish, now that they had stopped their play. Many eyes were shadowed with dark circles.

"But... " a small voice whispered - the little elf girl, Mae. "Who is going to protect you?"

"Commander Cullen and his soldiers," she answered promptly. "And Nightingale and her spies, Lady Montilyet and her letters."

"And the Iron Bull!" Mikel chirped, seemingly none the worse for wear. "He has a big sword."

"He does," she nodded gravely. "I have lots of people who protect me."

"Him too?" Illi said, pointing to Solas scornfully.

Ellara smiled, making his heart twist. "Him too."

"We protect each other," Solas contributed, standing on his long legs. He approached the little pack, noticed how some recoiled, some watched him suspiciously. He sank down again, folding his legs underneath him. "I protect her, and she protects me. We protect all of you. And when you are grown, you will protect us as well. As well as those who are smaller than you are. It is a circle, the way of things."

"Yeah, who are you?" Wild Illi seemed to have no fear and no respect, a little lion jumping into danger.

"I am Solas." He nodded his head at her formally. "And what is your name?"

"Illi." She stomped her small feet until she stood in front of him, hands on her hips, glaring through the curtain of her hair. "And NO ONE gets to hurt Ellara. NO ONE."

"Of course," he said simply.

"And if anyone is going to, you have to kill them." Her gaze was like fire.

"Naturally," he agreed.

This seemed to set her off balance. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Even if it's a Red Templar?"

"Even so."

"Or a dragon?"

"Dragons as well."

"What about... _Corypheus?_ " She spat out the name like it was a vile curse, like a nightmare.

"He will fall like leaves in howling wind and burn to nameless ash," he promised Illi. "Corypheus will not touch her again."

Illi regarded him solemnly, then spat a gob of saliva into her hand. She held it out to him. "Shake."

"Illi-" Ellara started.

Solas met Illi's gaze, spat into his palm, and shook. Her hand was so small.

"Well," Ellara drawled as the moment stretched beyond comfort. "That was exciting. Come on gang, time to go. I bet Alona is waiting for you with dinner."

This drew a ragged cheer from the pack, who tumbled through the door back into Skyhold. Illi was last through, checking for stragglers. She met Solas' eyes and frowned before turning away. The door swung shut behind her.

"You must not return from a mission with even a scratch on you," Solas warned the Inquisitor. "Or else that child will have my head from my shoulders."

"You're not wrong," Ellara sighed. "Thank you. That was well done."

He nodded his head. "Their parents?"

She shook her head. "I've been looking for foster families among the refugees, but it's hard. They've lost everything. I don't know if I can take them from each other too."

Solas thought. "Who cares for them?"

"Her name is Alona," Ellara smiled. "I found her at Haven trying to take care of all of them, without any resources. I keep trying to pay her a wage, but she just spends it on them anyways."

"They are lucky to have such a champion," he told her softly, only half meaning the caretaker.

She sighed, ran her hand through her hair. Dried leaves fell as she dislodged them. "How did you find me?" He smiled wryly. She rolled her eyes. "Don't tell Josephine?"

"She would be understanding."

"Yes, but then she could find me all the time."

"Ah. Point taken."

"Back to work we go." Ellara got to her feet, stretching. "You should come back next time. I think Illi likes you."

"Then I would fear to see her reaction towards someone whom she disliked."

"She can get kind of intense, can't she?"

They walked back to the library together, talking of little things. He tucked his hands behind his back, but did not bother to hide his smile.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to rpglvr, my dearest beta, and all the crazy children in my life who routinely put me in my own leaf-jail.
> 
> And thank you for reading.


End file.
